Budget 2020 Expectations: What women want from government

Budget 2020 is just over two weeks away - it will be presented on 1 February - and expectations among people from all walks of life are already building up. Women are no different. It is not a coincidence that they have high hopes since the budget is being presented by a woman finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. FM will be presenting the second budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 2.0 led government - it is the first full budget of the second term though.

One of the things being sought by women is to do away with taxes applicable to clubbing of the income under Section 64 of the Income-tax Act. Clubbing of income with someone could have tax implications under the law. Even gifts extended to kith and kin could have these income tax implications.

Under Section 64 of the IT Act, there are only certain specified incomes of specified persons that can be clubbed while computing the total income of an individual. The income of any and every person cannot be clubbed on a random basis. An income of a housewife with their husbands is taxable.

Women also expect the government to include them under Section 80TTB. Under this section, senior citizens can claim a specified amount as a deduction from their gross total income at any time during a Financial Year (FY). This amount can be up to Rs 50000. The government provided for this relief to the senior citizens in the Finance budget 2018.

They are also demanding an increase in the age limit for opening Sukanya Samridhhi Yojana from the existing 10 years to 15 years.

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While earning women and senior citizen women are also expecting the government to announce reductions of income tax rates in different tax slabs.

Housewives, in particular, are also expecting the government to cut prices of essential household things like groceries and cooking gas.